About Citizenship

About Citizenship | GCI - Global Citizenship Investment. We are the world's leading experts in advising foreign investors on Citizenship & Residency by Investment. Specialized in Citizenship Program and Residence Planning around the world.

Residence permits can be granted to investors and wealthy individuals in most countries, but there are currently only very few states which have clear legal regulations for granting citizenship for economic considerations and without residence compulsory requirements.

Australia, Belgium, Canada, Hong Kong, Monaco, Portugal, Singapore, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States are examples of countries which offer residence permits to wealthy individuals and investors. Other countries can offer Citizenship-by-Investment Programs and these programs allow an individual to become a full citizen only by investment.

Currently there are only six countries which offer citizenship-by-investment programs that provide a direct access to second passport issuance: Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, Cyprus, Dominica, Malta, St. Kitts & Nevis and Serbia (NEW!).

Belize and Brazil for example, had previously offered same programs a while ago but had already stopped their programs. Panama second passport program was re-enabled in 2008 with other requires and conditions.

There are some countries that can support an instant issuance of the second citizenship but is based on case to case ground and it is done for a certain contribution to that country economy. They do not advertise nor legalize it as a governmental program. These kinds of programs can be quite vulnerable and can be at the risk that Governments can change or high-ranking officials switched, and their policy or activities might be revised and pronounced illegal. As a general result, the entire series of issued passports will be cancelled. That is why this un-official programs can be easily used as a perfect cover for those which are conducting citizenship scams.

Try to avoid

1. Very cheap offers. More or less reasonable prices for legal citizenship and passport start from USD 30,000 for one of the Central or South American countries. If you acquire and receive your wished passport for only 5,000-15,000 USD, sooner you will face the trouble, most probably, crossing the first border. A quick check and the passport might appear as a “non-existent” or, even worse, blacklisted by Interpol.
2. Too fast passport issuance. In no case a real citizenship can be obtained within 7-15 days. You should take into consideration at least a month.
3. No need to travel. The only official program that does not require a personal visit is the one of St.Kitts and Nevis, which is requesting a really thorough due diligence check. In this particular case your documents will be shipped to you by a courier mail. Another exception is Dominica’s program where you can arrange a meeting with the Dominica authorized official person in your country for an extra fee. Every other no-need-to-travel program is just a fake.

Anyone is entitled for second citizenship

Very hard to believe it can be true. Restriction applied always, and even if there are no official indications, citizens coming from Pakistan, Iraq or Afghanistan might encounter difficulties in obtaining it.

Citizenship through marriage

Please note that there are very detailed interviews regarding spouses and most of the questions are pretty unexpected and will be compared. Failure risk is very high and is not advisable to go for such a procedure.

Citizenship by adoption

Chances to get the status by adoption is relatively small, even if you are below 21 years old, there are too many special demands to be fulfilled for such action.

Diplomatic passports special status

Diplomatic passports are only legal if issued by the competent authorities within the issuing State or by International Organization and the holder must be properly accredited in the host State.

Manage your Own Due Diligence

It is always highly recommended to deal only with licensed agents and law firms in the country where you wish to get a citizenship. In this way you are protected from those scam factors. Most of the existing scam websites have already being disclosed and unmasked by fraud alerts on forums. We consider all available information, beside our own experience and official public advisories of the authorities to maintain the list of non-recommended companies presented below. We are keeping this list updated. Your new information is more than welcome. If you posses any evidence of frauds, please let us know right away and we will add it on the list.